Shakespeare & Co. hires Associate Artistic Director

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Michael Hammond (Shakespeare & Company photo)
LENOX - Hot on the heels of announcing Shakespeare & Company's 2006 performance season Executive Director Mark W. Jones and Artistic Director Tina Packer welcome the arrival of Michael Hammond who comes on board in the new year-round position of Associate Artistic Director. A long-time Company actor, director, teacher, and artistic associate, Hammond will work closely with Packer and the artistic team at its Lenox Center campus to plan future performance seasons, develop new projects, collaborations and expand programming. The Company's 2006 performance season and ticket information is available at: www.shakespeare.org . Hammond slides into the role of Associate Artistic Director returning to the company as part of the artistic and managerial team after a two-year absence. He has spent almost 15 years with the Company, teaching in the year-round acting workshops, directing, and performing in countless roles. Hammond returns to the boards again this season for a turn in The Merry Wives of Windsor playing the harried and outrageous Master Ford. Other selected roles with the Company include Peter Woodburn in last season's critically-acclaimed Ice Glen, Duncan/Porter in Macbeth, Prospero in The Tempest, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Leonotes in The Winter's Tale, and three world-premieres, including Ludwig Wittgenstein in The Fly-Bottle, Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter, and Lawyer Royall in Summer. "I first came to Shakespeare & Company in 1979," says Hammond. "And though I've come and gone many times since then, I've always been keenly aware of the debt I owe to the founders of the Company for my artistic identity. For the past twenty-seven years I have considered Shakespeare & Company my artistic home, no matter where I might be living and working. This new role is an extraordinary opportunity for me to concentrate all of my training and experience on the Company I love. I count myself lucky to have the chance to return to the place where my talent and my ideals were developed, and I hope to utilize both to the maximum in my new position. It's hard to imagine a better fit." Hammond has also performed in New York, the Berkshires, Boston and at regional theatres across the country. Selected credits include The Miracle Worker at Berkshire Theatre Festival; King Lear at Brandeis University; Private Lives at Lyric Stage; at New Repertory Theatre: The Misanthrope, I Hate Hamlet and Death and the Maiden; Speed the Plow at Pennsylvania Stage; Burn This at Cincinnati Playhouse; NYC: Big Bill, Sisters Rosenzweig, Long Day's Journey into Night, M. Butterfly, and Search and Destroy. He has also appeared in film, and daytime and evening television productions. Directing credits include S&Co's productions of the world-premiere of A Tanglewood Tale and The Vienna Project, which was performed at Mass MoCa and Boston Playwrights' Theatre; A Girl's War at Boston Playwrights' Theatre and selected by the Boston Globe and Boston Herald as one of the "Ten Best Theatre Productions of the Year"; Scenes from a Bordello also at Boston Playwrights' Theatre; Thomas of Woodstock at Emerson Stage; and Tartuffe at The Drama Shop/M.I.T. Hammond lives in the Berkshires and is married to choreographer Susan Dibble. He continues to teach and direct at S&Co, and has also taught at M.I.T., Emerson College, and Boston University. "Because we are entering another exciting period of expansion," says Shakepeare & Company founder and Artistic Director Tina Packer, "it is essential for me to have an associate to plan the season, work on casting, and to keep building the collaboration between the performance, education and training departments."
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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